Writing at the Daily Beast,
former U.S. Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. (TN-D),
has decided that “voters love Common Core” simply because the standards “work.”

Ford’s interpretation of
the midterm election results is that voters sent a message not to abandon the Common Core
standards.

Using the now all too familiar talking points of elitist
proponents of the controversial Common Core standards, the former congressman
writes the debate over the nationalized education initiative has simply been
fueled by opponents who “spent this past election season distorting and
misrepresenting the progress going on in the classroom.”

Those who oppose the Common Core, however, should not be
concerned about Ford’s criticism because he does feel sorry for them and
believes some of them are “genuinely confused about Common Core’s development
and purpose…”

“Fortunately, on November 4 a majority of parents decided
it’s hard to deny success in the classroom,” he says, nevertheless.

Ford’s penchant for analysis of academic standards is
unknown, but he was described in 2010 at the Beast as someone
from “a dynastic political family tree in Tennessee (with the requisite bad apples),” who
“left the state and embarked on a new seven-figure job working for Merrill
Lynch.”

Like Gates-funded Fordham Institute president Michael
Petrilli, Ford has bought into the fairy tale that opposition to the Common
Core by parents and citizens in general amounts to little more than a tiff.

As Breitbart News reported several
weeks ago, Petrilli predicted after the
election that though the Common Core had suffered a few bruises, the majority
of states will move ahead with what he terms are “higher standards,” though no
independent group has determined they are, in fact, “higher.”

Petrilli is also looking forward to the bench of 2016
establishment Republicans like Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and John Kasich, whom he cites
as strong supporters of the Common Core.

Ford appears to be on board with Petrilli, and also Rick
Hess and Mike McShane of American Enterprise Institute, who declared recently
that Common Core was “invisible” during the midterm elections.

Writing additionally that 12 incumbent governors who
publicly support Common Core easily won reelection, and that in only four
states were the standards really an issue at all, Ford also says, “in the 44
states where Common Core is used, only 6 governors and 4 superintendents said
they wanted to change course on Common Core.”

Surely, these Common Core supporters protest too much, with
so much ink wasted and time spent on statistics over such an insignificant
electoral issue.

In his own home state of Tennessee—before he decided he
wanted to run for the U.S. Senate from
New York—Ford writes that Common Core is a success because
“college-readiness rates among high school students saw the biggest improvement
this year since the state began testing.”

Interestingly, as Fox News reported, Tennessee
appears poised to repeal the nationalized standards, with two Republican state
senators, Mike Bell and Dolores Gresham, having introduced legislation two
weeks ago to do just that. The measure comes on the heels of Gov. Bill Haslam
(R) calling for a public review of the Common Core.

In fact, during the summer meetings of the National
Governors Association(NGA), one
of the owners of the copyright
to the Common Core standards, told the Wall Street Journal that the
controversial reform had become a “political minefield” and “radioactive,”
certainly not the kind of language used to describe a mere blip of an electoral
issue.

“Like many other states, this is a key issue this year in
Tennessee,” said Bell, chairman of the government operations committee. “I
believe we need control over our own state standards."

Parents, teachers, and citizens against the new standards,
of course, will be watching to ensure the standards ultimately chosen for the
Volunteer State are not simply a “rebrand” of the Common Core.

The problem with Ford’s analysis, however, is that the
Common Core standards have never been proven to be valid measures of “college
readiness.” As Breitbart News reported in April,
Ze’ev Wurman, a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution and former senior
policy adviser with the U.S. Department of Education, demonstrated that claims
that the Common Core is internationally competitive and reflective of
college-readiness are actually not valid.

Wurman, the author of “Common Core’s Validation: A
Weak Foundation for a Crooked House,” published by the
Massachusetts-based Pioneer Institute, described two studies conducted by
Validation Committee members, who signed off on the Common Core standards in
2010, and then later attempted to find post facto evidence to justify
their decisions. In both studies, the research was poorly executed and failed
to provide evidence of the claims of Common Core supporters.

In addition to polls demonstrating plummeting support
for the standards, the spike in homeschooling
as a result of the Common Core presence in traditional school environments is
yet another sign of the reform’s imminent demise.

As The Heartland Institute’s Joy Pullmann told Breitbart News
recently, “To pretend Common Core is a non-issue ignores the Common Core
supporters who are bailing on its federal tests like rats from a sinking ship.”

Note: Henry A. Kissinger is a member of the Bohemian Club, an overseer at the International
Rescue Committee, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg
(think tank), was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank),
and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Harold E. Ford Jr. is an overseer at the International
Rescue Committee, was a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference
participant (think tank).

Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the International Rescue
Committee, the Aspen Institute (think tank), the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and the Robin Hood Foundation.

George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.

Condoleezza Rice is an overseer at the International
Rescue Committee, a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and
a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Frederic V. Malek
is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), the founder &
board member for the American Action
Network, and a member of the Alfalfa
Club.

George
H.W. Bush is Jeb Bush’s father,
a member of the Bohemian Club, a
member of the Alfalfa Club, and Christopher Buckley was his speechwriter.

Christopher
Buckley is a member of the Bohemian Club, was George H.W. Bush’s
speechwriter, and a blogger for the Daily Beast.

Scott McClellan
was a blogger for the Daily Beast, and his brother is Mark B.
McClellan.

Mark B.
McClellan is Scott McClellan’s brother, and was a senior fellow at
the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Richard C.
Blum is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank),
and married to Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Dianne
Feinstein is married to Richard C. Blum, a U.S. Senate
senator, and a member of the Alfalfa Club.

Jeb Bush is a
member of the Alfalfa Club, an advisory committee member for the Hispanic
Leadership Network, a supporter for the Common Core educational
standards, and George H.W. Bush’s son.

George H.W.
Bush is Jeb Bush’s father, a member of the Bohemian Club, a
member of the Alfalfa Club, and Christopher Buckley was his speechwriter.

Henry A. Kissinger is a member of the Bohemian Club, an overseer at the International
Rescue Committee, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg
(think tank), was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank),
a supporter for Christopher J. Christie’s
2012 presidential bid, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference
participant (think tank).

Harold E. Ford Jr. is an overseer at the International
Rescue Committee, was a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference
participant (think tank).

Clifford
S. Asness is a director at the International Rescue Committee, and
was a leadership council member for the Robin Hood Foundation.

No comments:

Sam on Bob Harden Show

Who Is Aristotle the Hun

"Aristotle the Hun" was the name given to me more than 30 years ago when a friend noticed that in spite of my intellect I was still an Iowa farm boy.

Rev. Sam Sewell, is Director of Best Self USA, a Pastoral Psychotherapist, serves on the faculty of Naples Community Hospital as an instructor for Clinical Pastoral Education, President of the Theological Center in Naples, a member of Mensa where he serves as Gifted Youth Coordinator, a U.S. Navy Veteran, and a Member of the Association For Intelligence Officers. He is a frequent commentator on mental health and religious issues.His award winning research on family issues is published in several languages. Member of Sigma Delta Chi Honor Society

Videos - One of Five

Quotation Gallery

"Though defensive violence will always be 'a sad necessity' in the eyes of men of principle, it would be still more unfortunate if wrongdoers should dominate just men."- St. Augustine

"A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous, and then dismissed as trivial, until finally it becomes what everybody knows." -

William James

"This is the real task before us: to reassert our commitment as a nation to a law higher than our own, to renew our spiritual strength. Only by building a wall of such spiritual resolve can we, as a free people, hope to protect our own heritage and make it someday the birthright of all men." --Ronald Reagan

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government."-- Edward Abbey

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."John Stuart Mill

"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." ~~~George Washington

"I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University." William F. Buckley, Jr.

"Conservatives are enemies of the government. Liberals are enemies of the nation because they are not enemies of the government."Aristotle the Hun

"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"Albert Einstein

"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...it's about learning how to dance in the rain." ANON

"That government is best which governs least."Thomas Paine

“A nation that substitutes emotion and empathy for rational thought will eventually digress into the Dark Ages,”Congressman Steve King (R-IA),

INTEGRITY: The highest courage is to dare to be ourself in the face of adversity. Choosing ethics over convenience and truth over popularity means there is never a wrong time to do the right thing.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.

The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

They may be more likely to go to Heaven for good intentions yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.~ C. S. Lewis

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." ANON

Guide for newbies!

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The search function is in the upper left hand corner. Readers are invited to cut and paste from this blog to your own emails. Each subject title has an embedded link so cut and paste the title and the first few lines. That will direct a person back to this blog.

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The government is conspiring against the citizens. The citizens have pitchforks, torches, tea bags, tea parties, Grand Juries and the Constitution. The government doesn't stand a chance!

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The famous Chapter 16 from "I Fired My Doctors" thathas become a "best seller" as a separate publication.

"The stress management chapter alone is worth the price of the book.”
Selwyn Mills, PhD